Hydrangeas in an Orange Vase

Wow! A bold splash of color can perk up any room and "Hydrangeas in an Orange Vase" has tons of color.


The juxtaposition of colors directly across from each other on the color wheel give this painting a big WOW factor. Does your mother-in-law's house depress you every time you walk through the door (and I'm just kidding about all of this) then this painting would be the perfect gift for her since it will bring a smile to your face and brighten your day every time you see it.

Here it is in my kitchen. (Yes. I hand-painted polka-dots on the walls.) It looks great here, but will look good on your walls too.

Here's a close-up so you can see the brush work.

Check it out in my Etsy shop.

This painting in Lyndel's Etsy shop

Winter Refuge

I started this painting MANY months ago - from what I can tell looking at pictures on my phone it was between a big snow in December or January and the time I planted potatoes. So... maybe February?

Here's how this painting began.

This was my inspiration photo. Yes. That's MY backyard. I know you're jealous. haha

The painting sat like that for a very long time. Then I added the barn.

Later I added the pond and then this week decided the barn needed to be a little cabin in the woods providing shelter from the winter storm.

You can't see them - not very well anyway - in the photo above, but there is a pair of cardinals in the tree.

If you like this painting enough to have it in your own home, you can buy it. It's in my Etsy shop

Winter Refuge

I asked my friends on FaceBook for name suggestions. There were a lot of wonderful names suggested.
Thanks to everyone that suggested a name. I suppose if you buy it you can call it whatever you want. lol

 Country Cabin?


 Cabin fever.

First snow

 Over the river and through the woods

 I can't think of a name ... but I LOVE it! I would love to live there! "A touch of Haven" ... I don't know ... think of sometime with Haven in it.

 ‎'Peace'. That's what I think when I look at it. Very nice.

 Winter Solace

‎"Winter Haven"

 Cozy in Winter

 Winter Sky

 I like peace too .. Or serenity

 Little House in the Big Woods. LOL!

 ‎"In the Bleak Mid-Winter, frosty winds may blow"?

 Our Winter Rest

 Winter's refuge.

 ‎"Refuge."

 Doesn't matter to me what you name it.... I LOVE it!!!!

 Quiet and Peaceful--Winter Joy. It is a beautiful picture, Bro Lyndel.

 I like Winter's Refuge listed above. Love the painting! It almost tells a story.

what about "Frozen refuge for a warm soul"?

 ‎"Frosty Morn" Nice picture...

 Winter Oasis

 ‎''Florida Bound''

 Home of Dreams.

 The Shack. Is that taken?:)

taking from Laura Ingalls Wilder... "Little House in the Big Woods"

 Winter's Chill ?

How We Did the Art Class - for Missions

August 7 I taught a painting class. I posted about it on my church blog, but thought I should post about it here on my art blog.

There are some places around here that do this sort of thing all the time. That's where we got the idea. Only since this was a church deal to raise some money for a mission team going to Portugal the money goes to missions rather than the teacher.

I had LOTS of fun teaching and I have heard from several of them saying they want us to do this all of the time.

Here's how it worked.

I painted a picture to use as a model and to help advertise. It's 16x20 gallery wrapped canvas painted with acrylic paint. I didn't use my nice thick acrylic paints because I wanted to use the same paint they would be using (and it had already been purchased by someone else for another project). I was still pleased with how it turned out.

20 people signed up for the class.

We met on a Sunday afternoon at 4:00.

Each person had a set of brushes, a canvas with the outline of a vase and table and a foam plate to use as a pallet. I showed them how much paint to get of each color.

Then I walked them through each step of the painting - demonstrating on a canvas and walking around giving them ideas of what they should be doing.

You'll see from the slide show how even though we were painting the same thing, each painting is different. Very cool.

Here is the painting I ended up with. The flowers are bigger than on the original. It was kind of difficult to paint and walk around commenting on everyone else's paintings.

The Secret of Vivid Color

Vivid Color. There's not really a "secret" to it. There is a simple way to figure out how to get a big POP in color in your paintings. Look at a color wheel. Using colors that are across the wheel from each other add excitement, pizazz, drama and interest to your painting. In some paintings you'll want a lot of color splash and vibrancy so you'll have many places on the canvas where colors opposite each other on the wheel are right next to each other. If you want a painting that is calmer, more peaceful and relaxing then you'll keep your big contrasting colors away from each other or use them in smaller doses.

Colors opposite each other on the color wheel add the most exciting contrast when they are next to each other in your painting.

I just painted "Hydrangeas in an Orange Vase" this week. It will be a model for a group of mostly non-painters who will all get together for a painting "lesson." I wanted a painting with a lot of "woohoo here we go" in the color, so you'll notice that the background is violet and yellow (opposites on the wheel) and the blue flowers are contrasted with the orange vase (also right across the wheel from each other.)

There are places around here - and possibly around the country, but I don't know about other places - where you go and spend a couple of hours painting. The instructor gives directions and demonstrates for the attendees step by step instructions where they can create a painting that is very similar to the sample.

On August 7, at 4:00 at Hilldale's Family Life Center, I'll be teaching those who come how to paint a picture that will end up looking a whole lot like this painting.

If you want a calmer version of this same painting you can do that too. You'll just need to use colors in the background that are close to each other on the wheel. The vase could be a different shade of blue or maybe a purple or green (close to blue on the wheel.) You'll still have a beautiful painting it just won't make your eyes pop out like this one does.

Neglected Blog

Oh wow! I just saw that my last post here was a year ago! It's been very difficult to post because I haven't had an Internet connection at home and haven't wanted to take work time to post something.

We now have Internet at home, thanks to AT&T and a DSL line. I hope it works OK. I've never really heard rave reviews about DSL but of course it's the cable people who talk bad about DSL. All I know is it can't be worse than DISH Internet where if a fluffy cloud goes by you lose your signal. (That may be a slight exaggeration but it really is a bad way to get Internet.)

So over the next few days I hope to catch up a little on my "art" blogging. I suppose another good idea would be to create some new art to put on here. The art I've been doing lately is walls at home. I guess that will be my next post.

New Piano Keys ACEOs

This is the third set of Piano Keys ACEOs that I've made.

I do the background differently each time, but the concept and the process has been the same.

They are fun to make and people like to collect them, so I made another set last weekend.

Keys 1

If you aren't sure what an ACEO is look at this earlier post What to Do with an ACEO

Keys 2

You can find them in my Etsy shop. My Bear Hollow Creations Shop 

I'll be putting all six of them up there over the next few days.

(My Internet is rather slow at home since I have DISH satelite as my provider.)

The Road to Emmaus

"Just paint it yourself!" (Keep reading to see how you can get a print of this painting.)

The title of this year's Passion Play was "The Road to Emmaus." It's the story of two men traveling from Jerusalem to a town seven miles away called Emmaus on the day of Christ's resurrection. As they are traveling Jesus joins them and the three of them walk to Emmaus.

My Administrative Assistant at church and our Publications Assistant spent a lot of time before our Passion Play looking for just the right graphic to use for advertising and for our program cover. I looked at some of the art sites too.

One of the pictures that we liked was a painting. It was close, but not quite what I wanted. So Donna, my Administrative Assistant said, "Just paint it yourself."

So I took an idea from the painting and then chnged it up to how I wanted it to look. Here's what I ended up with. It is a 9x12 acrylic painting on archival quality canvas.

As the men came to Emmaus it was getting close to time for the evening meal. The painting shows this not only from the setting sun, but from them men almost stepping off the edge of the paintint. They are almost to their destination.

For centuries painters Jesus Christ and then also "saints" were with a halo around them so you could tell who was who. (Or is that who was whom?)

Anyway, I didn't want to paint an actual halo, but you see how the sun light is shining around the head of the man in the middle - who is Jesus.

Julie did a great job turning it into tickets, advertising posters and the cover of the program. (She always does a fantastic job.)

The picture is hanging up in my office.

One of the ladies in the choir told me that I should make prints and sign and number them. Several others said they wanted a print too, so this next week we are going to print some on a nice heavy paper and I will sign and number them.

I may put one of the prints up in my Etsy shop. For our church members and my facebook fans I'm not going to set a price. I am just going to ask for a donation to our music/worship ministry. We'll use the money to go toward fancy new lights or other equipment we might need or want for next year's Passion Play.

Leave me a message on my facebook art page (or see me in choir Wednesday night) if you'd like one of the prints. If you're not already a fan notice the link right over there on the rightof this page and click on it to become a fan. How easy is that?